The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-05-22
cellar has few wines outside of Madeira,


champagne and claret.
when say the Astors i include the
branches also. Mrs. ColfOrd Jones is an
Aston and so was Woodbury. G. Langdon.
The latter is dead now, but his wine cellar
had a very good reputation and included
some of the choicest Madeira in New York.
Mrs. Jones' cellar also has fine reputation,
and is well stocked with rich old wines.
The Astors are continually on the lookout
for choice wines and never grumble at the
price 50 long as they are assured of the gen
uineness of the wine. Now, know Mr..
Astor would willingly pay me good mar
gin if could secure him some of this Blood
good Madeira.
Among the other men who will not
shrink from paying high price for what
they want is William B. Dinsmore, the
President of the Adams Express Company.
He is one of the most liberal buyers in the
country don't believe ever saw him
drink glass of wine, even at dinner, al
though believe he occasionally drinks a
glass of champagne. Like nearly all the
prominent wine collectors, he buys with the
idea Of handsomely entertaining his friends
rather than of tickling his own palate. A
great many who are almost total abstainers
build big wine cellars and stock them with
fine wines Those men never lack for
guests at their dinners and entertainments.
A short time ago President Dinsmore Of
fered me $50 a dozen for some rare Hook
wine.
Speaking of big wine cellars, it is getting
to be more and more the thing for big col
lectors to have cellars built to suit their par
ticular notions. A number of collectors
who have choice wines have the best put in
separate bins and never allow the keys to go
out of their own keeping.
81 called with some friends on one of these
gentlemen, an old acquaintance of mine,
several weeks ago, and in the course of con-
versation he told us that he had secured a
very fine Moselle wine.
"'Pll let you try some,' he said, and left
the ROOM
"He returned in about five minutes. His
hands were covered with dust where he had
been cropping in the cellar, and he had sew
eral bottles of wine carefully laid in a bas-
ket which he carried As | knew that he
had very good butler, inquired why he
had gone to the bother of getting the wine
himself
james is a very good servant and
knows thing or two about handling
wines, he replied He's honest, too, but I'd
rather trust him with my pocketbook than
my choice wines. | make it a rule never to
let any one touch the keyes to the best
wines, although it discommodes me at
times
Herman Oelrichs, the ex-President of
the New York Athletic Club, is another big
buyer. He bought very large lot of choice
wines recently in Baltimore. He paid a
fancy price for them, too, / understand
Mayor Hewitt has only enough wines to pro-
vide for his present needs. He entertains
frequently and therefore has to have GER
tain amount on hand, but neither he nor his
wife inherited any. Peter Cooper, his
fatbar-iD- law didn't cara a ran for yyiDa nd
did not bother to create wine cellar for his
children's use. understand, however, that
the Mayor is thinking of fixing up q first
class wine cellar now.
"a very large collection of fine Madeira
wines is owned by James G.. Kings sons,
the Wall street brokers and bankers Their
father was connoiSseur and imported
largely in casks about sixty years ago. He
ran it off into bottles, every one of which
bears his private sea The young men are
very chary about using it.
Every branch of the Remsen family has
share of the wines laid away by the an
cestral stock somewhere about the begin
ming of the present century You couldn't
buy a drop of it though you came pro-
vided with nuggets of gold. Frederick
Schuchardt, one of the Remsens, and So
ciety leader left very choice collection
when he died several years ago. Not bot
Tie WIS SOFA OF gOG INTO Une hanQS OF
strangers, however, but was amicably di-
vided among his heirs The Remsens have
been carefully adding to their. stock in a
quiet manner and bid fair soon. to have one
of the most select collections in the city.
among the other prominent. collectors
and owners of choice wines are, J.' w Cir
ard, Mrs w. w. Peck, A A. Low and
Judge Hilton. Charles A. Dana is an ex-
cellent judge of wines, and serves some of
the rarest and finest at his elegant enter
tainments. George Washington Childs has
large wine cellar at his home in Phila-
delphia.
There are many other prominent people
whose collections compare favorably with
those of Europeans, and, if American gold
continues to flow as libarally as it has, no
doubt many European collections will be
transferred bodily to this country
My friend poured out glass of rich Bur
gundy as he concluded, and after letting it
gently glide down my parched throat, |
went away more than ever impressed with
the growth of this nation and the advance
in the munificence of its first citizens
CHARLES j. ROsEBAULT.